Bohemian Rhapsody

Film info

Tagline The only thing more extraordinary than their music is his story.

A chronicle of the years leading up to Queen’s appearance at the Live Aid concert in 1985.

Live blog

Time

Comment

1:23

Live Aid! Literally all music revolves around this thing.

1:55

I didn’t know he had a lot of cats.

3:44

That crowd!

8:55

Extra teeth makes a better singing voice?

12:45

That mic thing can’t have come from a malfunctioning mic stand, surely?

15:07

That Brian May is blowing my mind.

17:01

Sorry, he’s playing Bo-Rap upside down, on a bed, back to front…. and saying it has potential??

21:35

“You look like an angry lizard.”

25:41

Wait, what? He proposed to a woman? I need to know my Queen history more.

28:06

Like, I knew he had big teeth but I have never noticed them so much as this film is shoving them in our face.

32:04

“Formulas are a complete and utter waste of time.” Uhhhh, don’t tell the mathematicians.

33:32

ROCKFIELD!

38:37

Roger is an absolute diva!

41:47

“Fred’s thing.” Just dismissed the whole of BoRap as that.

45:22

WAIT. That’s Mike Myers doing a Wayne’s World reference? I’m OUT.

54:15

I can’t believe I don’t know about this woman.

1:00:57

Aiden Gillan’s character is doing my head in. What accent is that??

1:05:28

“Come and find me when you like yourself.”

1:20:31

Solo?? No!!

1:15:27

“I’m terribly sorry dear, it’s done.”

1:17:25

Such a powerful bassline.

1:19:23

Leader vs lead singer.

1:24:55

Freddie went solo????

1:30:31

“What’s Live Aid?” THROWS UP.

1:39:09

This film. I’m in pieces!!!

Conclusions

The Good:

Rami Malek is incredible in this, embracing the spirit and the passion and the teeth of Freddie Mercury with style, grace, and a touching humanity. The actor playing Brian May was also really good, I thought. The scenes were well made with incredible attention to detail, particularly in the remakes of Top of the Pops and of course, Live Aid. It told whatever story it was trying to tell well, and swept you along to the end, by which time I was in floods of tears.

The Bad:

I sort of don’t get what the point of this film was. It touches upon lots of different painful things but none in enough detail to make it worthwhile. If it’s about Freddie’s genius, then we need more. If it’s about the struggle against AIDS, then we need more. If it’s about the troubles within the band, they barely scratched the surface. And if it’s about how they got back together to do Live Aid, well I didn’t think they did a good enough job of showing them broken up in the first place.

It’s a well made thing, and it made me want to dive into the history and music of Queen all over again. But in the end, I just don’t know why it exists.